The start of this school year at Gibson Southern High School was a little bit different than normal due to the new phone law impacting schools in the state of Indiana.
Senate Bill 185 states, “Each school corporation and charter school must adopt and implement a wireless communication device policy that prohibits a student from using a wireless device during instructional time, with some exceptions. The policy adopted must meet specific criteria and be posted to the corporation/school website.”
Gibson Southern High School’s administration had many discussions and ultimately decided to still allow the students access to the phones during lunch, passing periods and study hall.
“If we still have access during times that are brain breaks, it was not going to interfere with instructional time,” said Vice Principal of Gibson Southern High School Mandy Sefton. “We believed if we start with asking students to cooperate with us implementing this law during instructional time, giving the freedom during passing periods was going to be okay to try at least at first. So far, it’s been good.”
Teachers now have all students put their phones in their backpacks or in phone pockets in the classroom. Teachers were instructed not to let students use their phones until a couple of minutes before the bell rang for the class to end. English teacher Ian Gamroth has been enforcing this law and has seen minimal to no issues.
“I love it,” Gamroth said. “I’m here for it. The phones were a distraction that needed to be controlled. I explained it the first couple days of class, and it hasn’t been an issue especially in my junior classes. In my sophomore classes, it is more of an issue, but even then, it is minimal.”
This was a big change for students, according to junior Kendallyn Fauquher. Before this year, there were little to no regulations on phone use in the classroom.
“I think it is good and bad,” Fauquher said. “I feel like students should be trusted more than to make a law taking our phones away, but as a student who is an observer, I realize how many other people are addicted to their phones and cannot handle being on them and concentrating on learning at the same time.”
The change has been good in the eyes of the teachers and staff at Gibson Southern.
“Overall, I do feel like this is positive,” Sefton said. “I always felt like there would be times that students would not be paying attention because they would be getting constant notifications. Taking that away so that they can be focused and not lose our train of thought, I think, is huge. We still want to allow communication like checking in with parents. All that has been positive, that kids do have some access to do that throughout the day.”
Teachers are seeing positive results from the students and it is going better than they thought it would go, according to Gamroth. The students have been doing a good job of staying off their phones in the classes, according to Gamroth and Sefton. Students also agree that the productivity has increased since this law has been put into place.
“My productivity has gone up!” Fauquher said. “I feel like I have been able to get some school work done in class without having the distraction of my phone.”
